Phoenix Suns set for Los Angeles Lakers - another team with issues

A miffed head coach, 2 1/2-hour practices and a debate over whether the team's star should take shots or get everybody else involved?

Yep, that sounds like a laundry list of the Suns' problems this season.

Only that dirty laundry belongs to the two-time defending NBA champions, who have begun airing it in public.

After an 8-0 start, the Los Angeles Lakers had fallen into a malaise leading up to their game Tuesday night against the Pistons at Staples Center.

A home loss to Memphis prompted coach Phil Jackson to put the team through that long practice Monday reportedly with a heavy emphasis on defense and conditioning.

But Wednesday night, the Lakers come into US Airways Center to face a Suns team with plenty of its own issues.

The Lakers went into Tuesday's game 6 1/2 games behind San Antonio for the best record in the Western Conference.

The Suns were sitting 14 1/2 games behind the Spurs and three games out of the playoff picture altogether.

"I don't know much about what they're going through, but obviously they're not running away from the pack like maybe people thought they would," Suns playmaker Steve Nash said.

"We're on our own journey; that's enough for me to digest."

Interesting choice of words, particularly after the Suns spit up a 12-point fourth-quarter lead in Sacramento that left them trying to stomach a loss to the team with the worst record in the NBA.

But Suns coach Alvin Gentry, who put his team through a 2-hour, 40-minute practice recently to straighten out defensive rotations, is trying to take something positive from the first 43 minutes of that loss to the Kings.

And he chuckled when someone suggested that the Zen Master is borrowing his tactics with that 2 1/2-hour Lakers workout.

"Yeah, yeah. I get that all the time from Phil," Gentry deadpanned. "I've got a wedding ring on, and he's got 11 other ones. He has a tendency to borrow a lot of stuff from me."

But Gentry added that the Lakers' struggles show that almost every team goes through bad patches.

"The only team that hasn't done it (this season) has been San Antonio," he said. "Dallas has had injuries now and they're struggling a little bit. The Lakers are going through their tough time. Miami did it early and now they're on a roll."

Big and bigger

The Suns have used a small lineup of late, with Grant Hill and Mickael Pietrus starting at forward and Vince Carter in the backcourt with Nash.

Against a Lakers front line that includes Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and - off the bench - Lamar Odom, Gentry said the Suns might have to go big.

"We'll look at that (this morning), but I think it's pretty hard to ask Grant to guard Pau Gasol," Gentry said. "He would do it and give us the best effort, believe me. But that's a tall order - how about that for a play on words? - for Grant."

But the Suns - and more recently Memphis - had success by forcing the Lakers to guard them on the perimeter and the Lopez/Gortat combination wouldn't achieve that.

"We'd have a lot of screens set out there," Gentry cracked. "I think that's one of the things we have to look at. We want to get better rebounding and defensively but bottom line is, I have not seen a team yet win zero-zero.

"You still have put the ball in basket and we need to spread the floor to do that."

Eight is enough

Gentry said the Suns are "just trying to be one of the eight teams in the playoffs" from the West.

He repeated a story from assistant coach Dan Majerle's days in Miami to illustrate the importance of just getting in.

"Like Dan said, they were the best team in the East and the No. 1 seed (in the lockout-shortened 1999 season) and New York barely got in. The ball bounces on the last play of the game and goes through.

"They're out of the playoffs and New York ends up in the NBA Finals."

"So we hold onto things like that right now and we'll see what happens."

And finally

Gentry on how he's been sleeping, what with the Suns 3-7 in their past 10 games:

"Like a baby. I've been waking up every couple of hours crying and looking for a bottle, or at least a pacifier."